He will be tasked with deepening coverage in key North American markets, establishing an ecosystem of distribution partnerships and ramping up the company's presence in Asia and Europe.

The appointment follows a raft of executive hires in the last year, which include Douglas Murray as chief executive, Jeffrey Wang as vice President of Engineering, Prashant Gandhi as vice president of product management and strategy and Joe Palazola as vice president of worldwide operations and support.

Murray said Page had a track record of success across verticals and continents.

"He joins the company at critical time as we accelerate growth and drive adoption of SDN globally," he said.

"I am thrilled to have Shaun on the team."

Page, who was vice president of strategic accounts, joined Juniper via the acquisition of Unisphere Networks in 2002, where he was the country manager for A/NZ.

Page said the industry was rapidly moving to a landscape dominated by bare metal ethernet hardware and SDN software.

"When I learned of Big Switch's strategy around bare metal switching hardware and SDN, I realised this company is a game changer," he said.